


It was a Dark and Stormy Night

by seapotato



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Established Relationship, Flirting, M/M, Season/Series 05, and the banter kind, arthur pays attention, because them, but no spoilers, but the quiet kind, storm snuggling, textured soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25246030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seapotato/pseuds/seapotato
Summary: “He should be back by now.”“He will be, sire, soon enough. No doubt the poor weather has slowed him down.”“That's what you said half an hour ago, Gaius.”---Merlin gets caught in a storm.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 308





	It was a Dark and Stormy Night

**Author's Note:**

> [for the prompt "under the weather"]

“He should be back by now.”

“He will be, sire, soon enough. No doubt the poor weather has slowed him down.”

“That's what you said half an hour ago, Gaius.”

“And it remains true. Forgive me, but surely anything you need Merlin for can wait a bit longer?”

Arthur could tell that Gaius's patience with him had worn thin but he couldn't stop himself from pacing the room, pausing every few laps to look out the window. The rain was torrential. No doubt every river and stream would have overflowed, all the fields flooded. Merlin had gone out hours ago gathering plants for Gaius and still he was not back. It was nearly supper and Arthur needed his evening attire laid out, his armor and sword oiled against the damp, and a hundred other things that of course someone else could do but that wasn't the _point_. Bright purple-white flashed through the room and moments later thunder crashed down, rattling all the glassware on Gaius's workbench.

“Idiot better not get himself struck by lightning,” Arthur muttered as he resumed his pacing. Gaius pointedly ignored him in favor of lighting another candle and bringing it close to the manuscript he was reading.

“Might I suggest you retire to your room in preparation for supper? I could send along another servant to help you get ready. It would not do well to keep our noble guests waiting,” Gaius said hopefully.

Arthur doubted the visiting nobles would miss him. Sir Boris had hardly spoken to Arthur at all and seemed intent on actually avoiding him. The first night of their stay, he had asked after any unique or exciting treasures Camelot might possess. Arthur regaled him with a long list of horrifying traps and the exact way they might disembowel, poison, or maim any looters.

Merlin had sidled up and whispered entirely too loudly, “Don't forget the dragon, sire,” and Arthur had stared at him in false anger and said, “Hold your tongue, servant!”

Merlin's eyes had danced with amusement and he turned away just before Arthur heard him suppress a laugh. After that, Sir Boris had been rather quiet. This didn't stop members of his attending retinue from slipping silverware into their sleeves as they laughed and joked raucously with the knights and servants in sad attempts at misdirection. It was a frustrating alliance but one he needed to keep—it was not so long ago that he was only crown prince. He needed all the support he could get.

Arthur jumped when another flash of lightning and roll of thunder hit, along with a gust of wind that sluiced the rain against the windows. His heart was racing and adrenaline spiked through him. He felt a bit sick. Images of Merlin drowned in a swollen river, burnt black and red by lightning, gone blue with cold—every possible worst case scenario all lit up in his mind like their own lightning strikes. With no outlet, the adrenaline pooled in his stomach, making it sour and twisted.

Frustrated at himself for being so useless, he snapped, “Aren't you even worried about him?”

He regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. Of course Gaius was worried, and of course Arthur shouldn't be here, pacing the room and neglecting his duties, just for one servant caught in the rain.

Gaius leveled a considering look at him, his eyebrows arched high. “He has been through much worse than a storm. He is likely hiding out, as he should be, until it passes over. Have patience, my lord.”

More lightning threw the room into stark contrast and Arthur clenched his jaw, waiting

When Merlin finally stumbled in, completely drenched, Arthur had fallen asleep at the table. He'd skipped dinner entirely though it looked like Gaius had put a bowl of now-cold stew next to him and tossed a blanket over his shoulders. Arthur was immediately alert. The storm had stopped outside, the whole room now eerily quiet after so much noise.

“Arthur, what are you doing here?” Merlin asked, or tried to through his cold-numbed mouth, as he wobbled over to the fire.

Arthur could only stare at him for a minute, a bit stunned. Merlin looked half-drowned. He looked like a ghost.

Merlin made it to the hearthstones before he sort of folded down onto the ground, eyes half-lidded, lips entirely blue. Arthur noticed he wasn't shivering at all. Not good.

“No, no! Up!” he said, finally shaking himself into action. He tried to scoop Merlin up by the arms but Merlin listed to the side limply.

“S'fine, just got to warm up a bit,” Merlin slurred. His eyes closed completely and he tried to lay down. Arthur felt some of the panic from earlier in the night rise up into his throat. Gaius was likely still at dinner in the great hall but he couldn't leave Merlin like this to go get him.

“You've got to—come on, you useless sack of turnips, you can't do that here, you're soaking wet!”

Arthur jostled him, pulling hard on his arms until, with much grumbling and a few choice swears Arthur was generously going to forgive, he managed to get Merlin up and seated at the table. It was significantly harder to divest Merlin of his heavy, sopping wet clothing. Merlin batted at his hands saying he could do it himself, then promptly leaned dangerously over as he fumbled too long with the laces. Eventually Arthur managed to get most of his clothes off and wrap him in the blanket Gaius had left.

“Don't move,” he said threateningly before going to Merlin's room to retrieve whatever pitiful spare clothes and blankets he had.

When Arthur returned, Merlin, infuriating creature that he was, had crawled down from the table to scrunch himself up by the fire. He was shivering now, which was good, but he still looked too blue around the edges for Arthur's liking.

“You are impossible,” Arthur sighed and continued shoving Merlin around to get him dressed and wrapped in a second blanket, pushed him out of the way so he could spread two blankets on the ground, then rolled Merlin back by the fire before he tossed on another two logs. Arthur had to knock Merlin's hands away when he held them too close to the flames.

“Stop that, you'll get burned.”

“Will not,” Merlin groused, but he rubbed his hands together clumsily as he leaned away from the fire. Arthur scoffed and took Merlin's hands between his own. He delighted in the flush that bloomed up Merlin's neck. Arthur raised an eyebrow at him as he rubbed Merlin's hands and Merlin rolled his eyes but his mouth quirked into the tiniest smile.

After a minute Arthur tucked Merlin's hands into the blanket and went about reheating the small cauldron of stew Gaius had left to the side. He did his best to try to calm down a bit. Merlin was back, he would be fine, and Arthur hadn't wanted to go to dinner anyway. It wouldn't have been remotely bearable without Merlin rudely making faces behind Sir Boris's back, or “accidentally” spilling wine on someone just as they tried palming a spoon; and Arthur did enjoy his rants afterwards, saying all the things Arthur thought but couldn't voice because he was supposed to be currying their favor.

The stew reheated quickly and Arthur shoved a bowl at Merlin before sprawling next to him on the blanketed stones with his own bowl, his back propped against the heavy bench. The room had warmed nicely, chasing away the final tinge of pale blue from Merlin's lips.

“Don't eat so fast, you'll get sick,” Arthur admonished

“M'starving, was out there for hours,” Merlin said, rapidly shoving spoonfuls into his mouth.

They ate quietly for a bit until Arthur couldn't help but ask, “I thought you were foraging for Gaius?”

“Yeah, but medicinal stuff, not a dinner. Ate a couple herbs, that's it.”

“Hm,” Arthur said, and let it go. He was warm and full and finally exhausted from the adrenaline seeping out of him.

Merlin still finished too quickly, ate a second bowl a bit slower, then shoved his and Arthur's dishes aside before slumping heavily against Arthur's shoulder.

“This is nice,” Merlin said.

“What, drowning in a storm?”

Merlin pinched his hip and sighed. “You know what I mean. We should do this more. Take a break from the horrible dinners with Sir Brutus.”

“Boris.”

“I know, I was being disrespectful.”

“The stocks,” Arthur said idly, “and if your plan is to nearly die of exposure to get us out of dinner, even a horrible one, I can't say I'm all for it. It'd get old rather quickly.”

“We can just pretend—they all think I'm an idiot anyway.”

“Well, they're not wrong.”

“Shut up,” Merlin said, butting Arthur's shoulder with his head. They sat in silence for awhile and Arthur thought Merlin had fallen asleep when he suddenly yawned and asked tiredly, “Have you thought about what to do with the border negotiation for—”

“Shh! What is wrong with you? It was nice and you ruined it. Just—be quiet. Go to sleep or something.”

“What, here?” Merlin asked, already slipping further down Arthur's shoulder until Arthur rearranged them so that Merlin was curled up next to him, head on his lap, blanket wrapped around him, heavy and warm.

“I'm king, I can sleep wherever I want,” Arthur said petulantly, which was certainly not true, and actually probably had more restrictions than being anyone else in court. But Merlin didn't fight him on it, just squirmed a bit, his shoulder digging into Arthur's thigh. He sighed noisily into Arthur's knee.

“Yes, m'lord,” Merlin said with entirely too much cheek.

Arthur ignored him and instead carded a hand through Merlin's hair to get him to settle, both of them drifting off.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of the prompt writings I've got for now. If anyone wants to drop a very loose prompt (give me three words, link to a picture, a line of dialogue, etc) in the comments and you don't mind having zero expectations of what the content ends up being, go for it! Other than that, I'll be resuming prompt writing within the next few months. 
> 
> This week I'll be getting caught up on comments <3 y'all are solid af, saying the nicest and most thoughtful things!


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